Vietnamese Cold Noodle Salad

Another one of my favorite Vietnamese dish is the rice vermicelli salad.  Like Japanese cold noodle salad, it is garnished with fresh vegetables.  The testing is on the dry rice vermicelli I purchased. 

   

 Would this rice vermicelli really work?  that is the question.

 Cook shreddred chicken in your favorite chili flavored sauce.  Set aside.

In the same pot,  Add lots of green onions and chili and garlic.  Stir fry to bring out the flavor and aroma.  Mix in the chicken.  Combine.  Turn off the heat and set aside.

 Steam the hydrated rice vermicelli in the Steamer basket.

 Cool with luke warm water.  Strain.  Serve.
I found out that as soon as the rice touched the cold water, it turned plastic like texture.  Unpleasant.

 Serve with Nouc Cham and drizzle with some plum sauce.

Result:  I do not like this brand of rice vermicelli.  Keep on looking.   I've seen some in the frozen section.  Maybe those will work out better?

Viet-Namese Fried Spring Rolls - Gia Gio

 I spent most of the month of June, relaxing and enjoying the free Saturday.  Trying to recuperate from the end of school, and testing in my kitchen.  Visited quite a few restaurants.  Gia Gio (jia-yo') is one of my favorite food.  While living in S. Viet-Nam, my family patronize this shop in Cholon at least once a month.  Crab Gia Gio is their specialties.  It's nothing like this skinny looking fried 'egg rolls' that are presented here in the Asian restaurants.  It's pretty sad that improvisation of ingredients has changed its original form.  Some says, "as long as it's edible, and taste good, what does it matter?"   Well, it matters a lot because it's just not the same.  But after a few testing, my conclusion is that the effort in making it is a lot of fun.  The experience brought many flavor memories.  One of this day, I would like to visit Viet-Nam again.   Who knows, may be the restaurant is still there in Cholon.
The rice paper sheet to make the Gia Gio are make from tapioca and rice.  You will find several brands in the Asian market; however, I don't think they are quite the same as the one we had back in Viet-Name.  They are too thin.  I finally found one that says for Gia Gio instead of fresh spring rolls rice sheet. The turn out is much better, of course, but it didn't turn out the way I remembered.  But it was close and far better than the ones I tried over a year ago that when fried, the rice sheet seems like fried 'plastic'.
This is a testing, so, please don't follow, but the Ingredients are cooked crab shredded with  fingers.  Carrots thinly julienned, some black mushrooms thinly julienned, rice vermicelli << I think that's the problem.  It's a wrong type.  Salt and pepper.
Dip the rice sheet into water 3 seconds and place it on a flat surface.  Place the filling and start rolling into the cigar shape.  Set aside.

 Heat vegetable oil - medium low.  Fry gently till the rice sheet wrap is golden. 

Serve with Nouc Cham and fresh leaf lettuce
To make dipping sauce:  I don't like to put lime juice in mine, so, it's Japanese Rice Vinegar - 1/4 C; 1 tsp nouc mum - fish sauce, thinly julienned carrots, shakes of chili flakes; add teaspoon of sugar to taste.  Add more sugar until the right sweetness is obtained.  Add some salt to taste.

To eat:  wrap the Gia Gio with leaf lettuce and dip in nouc cham.   Enjoy!

Tip: The challenge to wrap the fillings snugly, and add the correct rice vermicelli type. 

Lion Head - Pork Meatballs Stew

It's getting a bit challenging trying to translate or interpret some of our family's favorite dishes.  The LION HEAD is a description of well seared large pork meatballs, then simmered with Chinese Nappa Cabbage - BAI TSAI, dried SHIITAKE - DONG GU, Firm TOFU, Bean thread,... It's our father's favorite dish.

My mother makes it the best.  And here is mine. 

I made enough to serve 4.

Ingredients: 

1 Quart Chicken Stock - home made & pre-frozen

2 C to 4 C water - (2 Cups come from the hydrated dried mushroom below)

3 hydrated SHIITAKE - dried Chinese mushrooms - Microwave it with enough water to cover the mushrooms (leave a small plate on top to keep the mushroom in the liquid.)  Place the bowl over a microwave tray to catch spilling liquid.  Bring the water to boil. Remove from microwave and set aside to hydrate in liquid.  *transfer liquid to the pot when ready to add mushroom into the stew

1-1/4 lb of ground Pork - fatty pork is preferred, but mine is 95% lean.

130 grams - 1 small can - water Chestnut (discard liquid and washed & rinsed well) - chopped

3 grams of minced fresh Ginger (Tip:  cut and prepare fresh ginger into various size and Freeze them in plastic bag.  Use the ones you want.)

1 Large egg

32 grams of chopped green onions - about 3 slender American green onions - Stir Fried in teaspoon of Olive Oil till browned.

Salt to taste - at least 1 to 2 tsp will be used in meat - Tip:  season the liquid as you go.

White ground pepper.

(Click on any of the pictures to view in larger size.)

 Water chestnuts are my father's idea.  He told me that since our ground pork is so lean, add chopped water chestnuts to give the nice fluffiness and at the same time it gives the enjoyable crispness.   Normally you would put the fresh chopped green onions, but I wanted to try with pre-stir fried green onions.

 Mix well by tossing motion.  Do no stir crazy in circling motion with the chop sticks or spoon.  That will make the meatball 'tough', unless your intention is to make the meatballs with gelatinized texture.

 Instead of pan frying the meatballs because I do not have the normal rounded end cone shaped Chinese iron WOK like my mothers, which will keep the rounded shape of the meat as they fry, I decided to test my new tool - meatball baker pan (I got it from the AVON catalog.) 

 If the pork is really fatty, this would really helped in getting rid of the extra fat.  But on the other hand, normally when pan fried in the Wok, some of the fats are left in the Wok to complete the stew, and it gives a lots of flavor.

 Here is the hydrated mushrooms.  I only used three.  Cut them into quarters.  Add to the stew.  Wash and rinse the Chinese Nappa Cabbage well.  Cut the broad leaf into halves - lengthwise.  Then cut into 2 to 3-inch chunks side ways.  Add Nappa Cabbage into stew. 

Open up your Firm or extra Firm TOFU package.  Drain the liquid.  Set the TOFU on a plate with rim or bowl and place a plate on it to extract some more water.  Drain.  Repeat 2 times.

Cut into nice large chunks.... like 1-1/2 inch size.

Add salt and white ground pepper to the soup, as needed.

** Be aware of the "fake" Bean thread vermicelli.  This one I have turned out to be it!  I forgot that the good bean thread vermicelli in this brand is always "individually" wrapped and tied close in red and white ribbon.  This one is in one whole plastic bag.  Also, the good bean thread vermicelli's brand has blue coloring on the plastic wrap at one end.   I totally forgot to be careful when I purchased it.   The whole thing turned into glue like when added to the stew. 

To hydrate bean thread, add the bean thread vermicelli into a bowl of hot boiling water.  In this one, I just took out the mushrooms and quartered it and added to the stew.  Then, I reboiled the liquid in the microwave and added the bean thread vermicelli.  When soft, use scissors and cut the both ends of the vermicelli, so it will not be toooooo loooong.

 Add the bean thread vermicelli at the end  - like three minutes before serving.  Otherwise, you will not find them - all dissolved into the soup.

Serve with soy sauce as dipping sauce.

Polly's Swirly Bao - RUOSeJUWEN with FEN Se, Carrots, and Ground Pork

 The actual Chinese name for this steamed bun/bao-ze in the shape of seashell or snail  shell is RUOSeJUWEN.  RUOSe literally means 'screw'.  But it would not sound right if I call it Screw Bao.  This has been my favorites because it has interesting shape.  You can have fun eating it by unravelling the strands like noodle.  I have tried to make this many times, but never satisfied with the formula.  Like many other Chinese dishes, there are no written family recipes being handed down.  We all depend on the memory and passed on down from the older generation.  Of course, there are cooking books that we can always referenced to.  It is also very interesting to find out that whether you follow the passed down recipe or from the cook book, you find that both recipes are quite similar.  The only difference is that one is written and institutionalized and the other ones are passed down to the new generation by words of mouth and with lots of interesting family story to go along with it.   Since we are so busy working outside the home, I think writing down the family recipe is a good thing.  We tend to eat more outside and try to cram so many things-to-do in a day that those family recipes could gotten lost.
So this recipe is quite comparable to the ones that I have.  But the mixing method include the poolish that I my formula did not have before.  And interestingly, there isn't that much water required to mix the main dough.
Ingredients:
Mix 3 oz of poolish (1:1 flour: water and a pinch of yeast & 3 days old) with 2  C of flour, and 1/2 C (to 3/4 C if needed) water.  Knead to form into a nice medium soft dough.   Set aside.

Beat 3/4 C of egg whites (from 5 AA Large size eggs) with 1/4 C of sugar.  Just enough to mix the sugar together well.  Add 2 Tbsp of shortening. Mix.  Then, add, 1 tsp baking soda.  Set aside.
Shift 2-3/4 C flour with 1-1/2 Tbsp baking powder.  (Optional:  Add 1/8 tsp of instant yeast as assurance.)
 Shift flour mixture into the poolish mixture.   
Add beaten egg white mixture.
Start mixing everything together with spoon or with the palm of your hand until a nice smooth ball forms - 10 minutes. The dough should be as soft as your ear lobe.  Cover and let rise until double in size.
Cover your bamboo steamer with cheesecloth and get the steamer's bottom pot ready with water.  Set aside.
Prepare the filling ingredients that you would like to add.
Filling:   * Microwaving time depends on your microwave's power.
1/2 a package of FEN-Se (Bean Thread Vermicelli) - Rehydrate the FEN-Se in hot water.  Thin Rice Stick would work also.  The bean thread should be soft after 5 minutes, but not disintegrated.  Use a clean sanitized kitchen scissors and cut the bean thread into 3 inch length.
1/2 C Carrots, - thinly julienned.   Microwave the carrots for 1-2 minutes with 1 tsp of water, covered with microwave splatter shield to keep the steam in.
* Microwave the carrots just enough to get it out of crisp so it will be easier to roll in the dough.
Mix 1/2 Cup of ground pork with 1/2 tsp Kosher salt.  Place on a microwaveable plate.  Cover the plate with microwave splatter shield cover.    Microwave the ground pork mixture for 1 minutes.  Stir at 30 seconds and separate large chunks into small pieces.  *Drain the bean thread and carrot mixture thoroughly.   Add the pork to carrots and bean thread mixture and mix well.  Taste and add seasonings - salt and pepper and any thing else you like. 
I added 1/4 tsp of Chili Flakes in mine.
Portion the dough into two.

 Roll out one portion into rectangle.  Spread the bean thread mixture with pork over the dough.   Fold into halves.











Slice the dough at1/4 inch intervals.

 Hold both ends with hands and stretch out to -- at least 6 inches and while holding one end of the dough with left hand twirl the right dough end around the left hand that is holding the dough to form a turban or snail looking twirled dough. 
 Scoop the dough off the fingers and tuck the right dough end under.   I had to do a few before it 'looks good'. 

Cover and let it rise for 1 hr (if your kitchen is 65'F like mine) until it has risen 1/2 time it's size.  & soft to the touch.
























Bring the water to full boil.  Place the bamboo steamer on top of the pan - the boiling water should not touch the bottom of the bamboo basket.  There should be at least 2 inches of gap between the boiling water and the steamer basket.
Steam at high temperature for 12 minutes.  





Turn off the heat.  Let it cool for a few minutes with lid on.


Transfer the basket over a large platter to catch the steam evaporation.
Serve.
Re-steam or fry it in skillet with a bit of oil to brown the bottom the next day.  

You can eat this with or without Soy sauce and vinegar dipping sauce or serve with main course dishes.